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At the bathroom sink I stared into the mirror.
The pupils of my eyes were going wild.
My veins were filled with buzzing flies.
I went to the toilet, thinking I could pass this bad nightmare.
Instead I pissed myself inside out into the toilet.
When I tried to climb out I accidentally pulled the handle.
I flushed myself through all the sewer pipes like a roller coaster.
A flickering light got brighter and brighter.
I wound up back at the bathroom sink mirror, staring into it, chanting, Never trust a Mustang!

PAST NEWS 06/02 THROUGH 12/04
From Banjo Boy Records and The Chiapetz Recording Studio

DECEMBER 2004   The song M.D.C. was finished on December 8th. Production has slowed with the Holidays. A new song was started, entitled, In The Name Of God, along with two songs produced for a local singer, Christine. More news after the Holidays.

NOVEMBER 2004   As progress rolled along, on the song, M.D.C., Ned took the time to work on the family Christmas Card and related photos. Ned's latest CD, Time To Kill, was in the stores in mid-November! By November 30th the new addition to Band Science 101, Part II, entitled, Why The Music Industry, Including Radio, Sucks, And Why Real Artists Don't Care, was posted. Check it out!

OCTOBER 2004   Larry Veley, sadly, passed away on October 4th, and a lot of musical projects came to a stand still. It was very hard on all of his family and friends. Ned was able to finish two songs by himself, The Key, and The Buhdwheezer Soft Shoe. The next song up for recording is a new song entitled M.D.C.

SEPTEMBER 2004   The song, Two Boys On a Tractor, was finished on 9-1-04 with and addition of an orchestra tack for it's finale. The bass guitar tracks to Frankless, and Music To The Soundtrack Of My Life, were finished by 9-12-04. Larry Veley had an accident and is going through physical therapy for a multi-fractured foot/ankle. He will finish those guitar tracks as soon as he comes home next month. A new ballad Ned wrote in the early 1970"s entitled Hold On, was started on 9-14-04. After it was finished, the song, The Green Egg was started on 9-26-04. It will feature slide guitar work. Ned is one of the judges of the Guitar Center Drum-off 2004 competition. This is a regional competition for local, then state, and finally, nationals. The most recent event on 9-21-04 drew a tie between two very strong contestants. Ned will soon be adding to the Band Science 101 Part II section, a piece entitled, Why The Music Industry, Including Radio, Sucks, And Why Artists Don't Care. It is a fun, spirited rant about silk purses, sows ears, and the music business in general. The CD musician photos are all that is left to do for the MTTSOML CD.

AUGUST 2004   Larry Veley recorded some lead guitar tracks for the Barbazoonka project on 8-16-04. A new acoustic song, Two Boys On A Tractor, was started on 8-14-04. It is a song about Ned's grateful past as a country kid growing up in Sparta, Michigan.

JULY 2004   There will be Family CD's for contributing family members arriving in the mail this month. New art will be posted on the arts pages. Barbazoonka will be finishing up their three tracks in mid to late August. Those tracks are: Music To The Soundtrack Of My Life, Don't Let It Bring You Down, and Frankless. By the 16th of July, Barbazoonka's Bob Hartig and Steven Ayres began laying their parts. The website page, Music To The Soundtrack Of My Life was posted. On 7-25-04, Ned was asked to drum on an album with artist Hank Postma.

JUNE 2004   June has been one of Ned's cosmic months. All in one week, he heard from most every member of the band, Barbazoonka, which he was a part of in the later half of 1970's. Soon a plan was devised to get them on the upcoming CD project, Music To The Soundtrack Of My Life, and to have this reunion on three songs. Ned wrote the three songs for them to play on. Marty Lighthizer would make it from Japan to lay keyboard tracks. Larry Veley, to add guitar layers. Bob Hartig, and Ned, from their homes in the Grand Rapids area, to lay sax, bass, percussion, and other tracks. Steve Ayres will lay his bass part over the internet. John Lutz, from Grand Haven, will then mix one of the songs. Some of the songs that are prepared, and they are to work on are: Music To The Soundtrack Of My Life, Don't Let It Bring You Down, and Frankless. The other songs will be: The Green Egg, Momma Slippers, M.D.C., The Key, Midnight Lake, Hold On, Two Boys On A Tractor, The Buhdweezer Soft Shoe, In The Name Of God, and Part #5 of the Dr. Racocoa saga. My Uncle Richard Drilling, who's played keyboard/sax with many well known people from Ella Fitzgerald to Della Reese, will jazzup' a number or two on an upcoming CD. The great local band, Mane Street, also offered to appear on some of these songs! Barnes and Noble are selling out of The Palette CD and orders through this website are up. Thank you!

MAY 2004   In early may Tim Afton laid all the guitar tracks to All Is Lost and Preface. These songs were completed and mixed. Nedstradamus (Three Percussionists) which is the last track to be worked on for Time To Kill, was created on 5-6-04. It features three complimentary percussion sections, and is the finale of the album. Ned enjoyed the time it took to carefully create this drum piece. All the artwork for Time To Kill was finished, it was put through a final mix, and the copyrights were all sent in by 5-10-04. It will appear in stores around Christmas time. Some of the artwork will soon be posted on the Time To Kill webpage here. Ned will take a short break to write some new material and then he will begin his next CD project, Music To The Soundtrack Of My Life, next month.

APRIL 2004   On 4-3-04 Robert Rouse edited the lead guitar part to the March produced track, Time To Kill. Within the same week the production on the song, Blinded began. Blinded is a song Ned wrote years about despair in a relationship. It has a haunting melody and a very acoustic feel. The song has two parts and two very different styles though. The first, is the ballad part, and the second is the techno part, produced with Ned's new Fruity Loops program. This song is a marriage between musical landscapes and was finished on Clara Rouse's birthday, 4-11-2004. Midway through April, Ned began recording his rocker song, Preface, and within three days it was ready for his old friend, Tim Afton, to lay lead guitar on. He also started working on the new song All Is Lost. Tim is busy gigging with his band, Mane Street, but will find time to record the week of 4-24-04. Ned also created the fourth installment of Dr. Racocoa.

MARCH 2004   Ned and Clara attended the Leon Redbone concert here in Grand Rapids on 3-3-04. It was a great show put on by WYCE. Ned' new CD's title song, Time To Kill, was started. It is a hard driving song about traveling through life. On 3-6-04, more guitar tracks were put down on it in preparation for Robert Rouse's upcoming guest lead guitar performance. Wanting to work on his folkish needs, on March 18th, while waiting to finish Time To Kill, Ned recorded most of the parts to the song, The Dictionary Of No Words. Fred Willson will lay mandolin tracks on it soon. March 20th/21st, Ned created the new song called, Sweet Little Buckwheat. It is a new age style lullaby to his wife, Sara, and sheneverdidnuffintonobody! On 3-23-04, the new song about addiction, Dr. Souse, was started, and finished by 3-27-04.

FEBRUARY 2004 Ned finished the song, A Valve With No Handle, on 2-7-04. He also wrote, then added, The Band Science 101 story about his first bar band, Stroke, this month, and is working on the support webpage for his upcoming CD, Time To Kill. On 2-10-04, he shot photos for a furniture catalog, and he added a new photo for The Myography webpage. On The Reporter page is new tabloid satire news story about Jim Henson. Check it out! The next songs to be created are: Accountable, and Destroy Jr. Safee. On 2-26-04, Ned began recording the song, Accountable. It is a ballad with thick, heavy harmonies. It was finished and mixed by 2-28-04.

JANUARY 2004   On 1-5-04, two new additions to Band Science 101 were written. They are called For People Who Like To Party And Dance, and Take Route 3, And Go To Easy Street. They were written about Ned's bands, Complaint Department, and Route 3. He started producing a CD for a local solo artist on 1-15-04. On 1-7-04, work began on the acoustic song, As For The Past, and was finished on 1-11-04. It is a song about childhood teasing. He also started arranging the song, A Valve With No Handle, about severe drought. It will be a moody and strange piece. On January 30th,
Sara and Ned celebrated their 6th Wedding Anniversary!

DECEMBER 2003   The next CD, Time To Kill, has started production. Ned has upgraded his studio, is working with a new system, and Sonar 3 Producer software now. Some of the songs to be included on the CD are: Dr. Souse, My Token Christmas Song, As For The Past, Destroy Jr. Safee, Time To Kill, A Valve With No Handle, Preface, Momma's Slippers, Accountable, The Dictionary Of No Words, Sweet Little Buckwheat, Blinded, and Nedstradamus. All of December was used to create the song entitled, My Token Christmas Song, a duet with Clara and Ned. It was finished by 12-24-03. The Christmas season is upon us. Love God!

NOVEMBER 2003   Ned will be finishing up on a club mix CD he produced for a local DJ, plan the listening party for The Palette CD, and will get ready to produce a CD for the band Groove Therapy. Sara and Ned will celebrate their 50th birthdays this month. He will start recording the Time To Kill CD soon.

OCTOBER 2003   The Palette web page was created and posted on 10-4-03. The next CD project will be called Time To Kill and will begin production in November. Four or five new guest musicians have expressed interest in donating their skills. It will have 13 songs. One of them will be a bonus token Christmas song, and also the 4th installment of Dr. Rococoa. This album will be produced more slowly than his prior efforts due to the work he is doing on a family geneology photo disc project. For a preview of the album art, see the order page area. On 10/24/03 Ned finished the family photo CD project. He is having video media of some of his music created in conjuntion with a group at Kendall Art College. He has also been contacted by a retired nationally recognized recording artist to maybe work on a project together. Ned created a promo Halloween version of The Grimm Rapper for local radio stations. Stay tuned!

SEPTEMBER 2003   The Reporter CD was released and is in the stores as of 9-5-2003. Work began on the song Late Charges/Overdue Bill on 9/6/2003. It was completed by 9-15-03. It is a song about standing at the door of discovery. He instantly started work on the moody song The Child Was Born A Painting and wrapped it up on 9/20/03. This song is a surreal look at how even children in paintings can be treated poorly. Ned began recording the fantasy song Uranus on 9/21/03, along with Dr. Rococoa Pt 3. They will be the last tracks produced from The Palette project. With the sadness of the passing of another friend, Ned got together with her spouse and mixed her 4 final music tracks for her funeral. Her name is Sue DeLong. For those of you who are unfamiliar with her, she had a beautiful voice and was a good songwriter. Sue performed a lot of folk music or acoustic music. As of late, as her illness progressed, she wrote inspiring Christian music. We were all proud to have known her. On September 6th, Ned connected with various ex-band mates that are now a part of the band Mane Street. A couple of them may play on his upcoming music CD project. It will be a busy month for Ned. He will try to finish up The Palette CD artwork. Also on the 13th of this month Ned has photographed furniture for a company catalog, and on the 19th of September Ned and Clara Rouse donated their time answering phones for the WYCE fund drive. Uranus was finished on 9-28-03 and the CD artwork for the Palette was completed, and all copyrights were sent in. The Palette will be in the stores late winter.

AUGUST 2003   On Saturday 8-23-03 tracks for the new blues song Strange Day were recorded. It was finished on 8-30-03. The song is about his friend Marvin Hubert. Marv died a couple of years back and this song has Marv's voice sampled, and and some of his work sounds in one of the solos. I'm Home, a rock ballad, that Ned wrote in 1968, when he was 13 years old, was worked on from 8-11-03, through 8-21-03. He had written many songs/poetry since he was 8 years old, but this was his first song with both lyrics and music. In contrast, a brand new song, The Mark of the Beast was finally finished, with Bob Rouse laying lead guitar tracks, on 8-10-03. It is about the Antichrist and a heavy rock number.

JULY 2003   Ned began practicing/arranging The Mark of the Beast on 7/5/03. Soon recording began, and friend, Jeremy Hyde, sat in on the drums. Bob Rouse will add lead guitar tracks in early August. At the very same time Ned started recording For The Love Of God. It is a personal song that will be the last song on this new album. Both songs were in production at the same time. Through out July, tracks were still being laid for both songs, and For The Love Of God was finished on July 21st. On 7-23-03 Rueben Man On Broadway was recorded and mostly finished. It is a Broadway show style of song. He was recently hanging out with fellow blues lovers. They all declared their appreaciation for blues and doo-wop music. He has always wanted to write a doo-wop song about winers and have it sound respectful to the 1950's.

JUNE 2003   Both the Candye Kane photos, the 6-9-03 Xavier Rudd photos, and their web site links are posted now on the Photos and Art Page. WYCE will have their photo picks from Ned posted soon. Besides photographing these concerts for the WYCE web site, Ned has begun work on his symphony for the 3rd album entitled, The Brheanna Mary Symphony. He was busy laying the concert grand piano tracks and around June22nd 3/4ths of the Orchestra was recorded. This one was composed for his wonderful daughter, Brheanna Mary Meyers. By 6-28-03 The Brheanna Mary Symphony was completed and will be a challenge to mix. WHEW! This one took a lot of work and takes. It is almost nine minutes of 30 instrumental tracks with subtle sound colors. The new song The Mark Of The Beast will begin production early next week. It will be a hard and heavy style of playing put together with a very spiritual lyric.

MAY 2003   Ned started work on his third CD called The Palette. It will have 12 songs. The songs to be included will be: The Palette, Rueben Man on Broadway, I'm In The Forest, For The Love Of God, Late Charges/Overdue Bill, Uranus, The Child Was Born A Painting, The Brheanna Mary Symphony, Make Believe, The Mark Of The Beast, I'm Home, and Strange Day. He will be taking pictures for the WYCE Candye Kane concert on May 31st. During the radio station fund drive Clara Rouse and Ned helped answer the phones. Everyone at the radio station had a good time and raised a lot of operating money! On 5/14/03 Ned started and completed his nature song, I'm In The Forest. This song was written when he was 17 years old and it is a very simple beautiful piece. On Saturday morning 5/17/03 he spent 3 hours creating a new song, The Palette, before a day spent with old musician friends. It is very heavy and keyboard driven. He finished mixing it the next day. Artwork for the Palette CD cover was started on Memorial Day weekend. By 5/30/03 Make Believe had been created and mixed. It is a very beautiful and melancholy song that took three full days of work to get it just right. Look for the Candye Kane show photos, soon to be posted on the WYCE site, and photo page here.

APRIL 2003   Ned took a detour from his current writing schedule to drag an old composition out of his early tape archives, brush off the dust, and then give them new life. He had been in contact with Dave the Knave from Naples who inquired about the tracks recorded way back in 1978/1979. Dave had laid some guitars on those tracks and would like to hear it finished some day. After locating the tracks, Ned decided that all they really needed was to be digitally transferred, added to, and then finished. On April 3rd he transferred them, repaired them, laid tracks, and by the 6th he had completed them. So now Bavarian Chance/Innocent Is The Child are at last completed! They are songs about the severe harshness that war has on children in countries like Iraq. Ned also created doctored photos, appearing to support the tabloid theme of the new CD, on The Reporter page,....linked below. On April 6th his brother Robert laid guitar tracks for the song The Grimm Rapper. This song was the last track to be recorded for The Reporter CD. The CD and art were completed on April 16th. Copyrights were then sent in. Look for the CD in stores mid-fall.

MARCH 2003   With this month comes several new things on this Web Site. There is now, Part II of Diarrhea Of A Madman, The Equipment Page, and last, but not least is, the Life in the Furniture City CD information page. Work was also done on tweaking this site with a slightly different look to it's buttons. The CD's are selling well in the stores and through this site. On March 1st work began on the song Hungover Sunday Morning Blues. It originally was heard in Ned's 1977 movie, Alvin's Journey. He has always wanted to give it the sound he had originally planned for it. Now he will! UPDATE: Ned finished it on March 4th! Recording began on New Strings/Old Songs on 3/8/03 and was waiting for Clara Rouse to lay backing vocals. On the 12th she did and the song was in the can on the 13th. He went on to the next song The Daydream Blues on 3/15/03. Clara did this as her first vocal solo song, and she put in a powerful, but sensitive performance. We finished all orchestral backing tracks on 3/21/03. Done!!! The next song from the Chipetz studio in Kentwood will be The Grimm Rapper, Ned's only rap composition. He says you can put a big "C" in front of most rap.

FEBRUARY 2003   The songs The Well and The Reporter were finished! Fred Wilson had laid a wonderful mandolin section, and a very Celtic sounding penny whistle for his part on the tracks for The Well. Ned recorded all of The Reporter song in simple layers in only 4 live tracks. It is very powerful heavy rock. Later in the month Ned recorded the song Stupid Little Shoes. The new CD has 5 tracks to be recorded yet. The songs slated for recording in March are New Strings/Old Songs and Hungover Sunday Morning Blues. He shot some photos for the liner notes section. This month he will be adding more of his poems/observations to the website. The Smile and Dr. Souse are now added under the REPORTS button along with a Furniture City CD info page. On the California Guitar Trio Website, Ned and Sara are in one of the photos of the audience. It's in the 1/24/03 Grand Rapids Michigan tour photo area, that CGT's Hideyo Moryia took from the stage.

JANUARY 2003   The break is over. After photography work was done for a wedding and a furniture catalog, he shot photos for WYCE for the Susan Werner and Grey Eye Glances show at the Wealthy Theater on 1-10-03. Ned was then back to music writing again. He created the text for a new Banjowheat web area called Band Science 101. After a few days off from music projects, work was resumed on The Well. Clara Rouse sings in the choir style intro. It took a whole day just to lay the right tracks for her. The middle section of the song will come next, then lastly , the coda. A musician friend, Fred Wilson, will be contributing his skills with folk instrument playing for the mid section. His CDs will be available soon at Vertigo Books, Barnes and Noble, and Schuler Books & Music Stores early in February. On 1-24-2002 he shot The California Guitar Trio concert for WYCE. He also began work on the song The Reporter.

DECEMBER 2002   On 12-9-01 began work on the song The Well. It is dark ages sounding style and lyric. It is very difficult to play. Work will also begin soon on the CD's title song The Reporter. So the Gibson lap steel guitar was repaired and is being put back into action. It could be Ned Zeppelin time again musically. Over the holidays music work will take a backseat to family things. On December 19th Life in the Furniture City was finally released!

NOVEMBER 2002   Ned finished work on The Power of No Words on 11-3-03. His blues/12 step song, I Never Had a Chance, was finished by 11-18-02. Ned's brother, Bob, supplied the lead guitar duties. It came out very good. His work began on the album design and artwork for The Reporter CD. Work also began mid-month on the songs, The Well, and Vicki Marie. He is having his 49th birthday on the 26th. The song Vicki Marie was finished on 11-28-02. It has a "Bolero" style or feel to the song. His computer crashed on 11-28-02 and was back up and running by 11-31-02. It was a sad and stressful couple of days. Ned will soon do his photos for the upcoming December 15th,WYCE/Luther Wright & the Wrongs concert. Christmas is coming!

OCTOBER 2002   Work began on Ned's next CD with the working title, "The Reporter". So far two songs have been produced for the project. The first, finished on October 15th, is entitled, Search for What You've Lost in the Darkness. It is a ballad with just voice and piano accompaniment. The other song is a new instrumental piece named The Power of No Words, and it was started on October 30th. Other songs to be included in this project are Bavarian Chance/Innocent is the Child, The Well, I Never Had a Chance, Stupid Little Shoes, The Grimm Rapper, The Daydream Blues, Vicki Marie, New Strings/Old Songs, and Hungover Sunday Morning Blues. He also began designing this website, which utilizes a lot of web and personal artwork/photographs that he had created over time in the planning of these projects. Ned is also toying with letting a few guest artists appear on the new CD. He usually prefers writing alone unless it's for other people's projects so it will be a personal project again with songs and lyrics by Ned Rouse. He is also working on a friends CD that will be recorded over the next year.

JUNE TO SEPTEMBER 2002   Ned Rouse records his 12 song CD "Life in the Furniture City" at his Chiapetz Studio in Kentwood, Michigan. Some songs were recent compositions and others were old favorites, written years before. The songs are: Life in the Furniture City, Things (We Did As One), All You Mean, The Slug and The Swine, Jenny, Unborn Love, The Suffering (Parts I & II), Rust of Me, Lonely Life, Quarantine, and A Sign of the Times. He completed the CD design in mid October and it includes a lenticular cover of his photographs, created for him by a company in Hong Kong. Ned photographed the album art in Grand Rapids, with the exception of the jailhouse photo, which was taken in Cedar Springs, Michigan, and was then assembled. The lyric and song explanation sheet was constructed from the copy right sheets before the copyrights went to the Library of Congress. Final album mixdown was then completed.