ruffian angel...
on laughter-silvered wings
in darkest lore, a demon is "an angel gone bad" to become a
"ruffian" angel.
About poets and songwriters: "Write without pay until somebody
offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing
wood is what you were intended for."~ Mark Twain (1835-1910)
U.S. humorist, writer, and lecturer.
Forward by Ruffian Angel...
Micheal the Archangel, one of only two angels named in the
connonical bible, was the ruffian angel who slew the dragon or
evil angel now known as Satan.  But
was Satan the good guy all along and archangel Micheal a ruffian?
In the painting 'Micheal' by 'Raphael' the "bad angel", Satan
doesn't look much different from any other angel. (Print shown
below.) Perhaps deeds--as depicted in art as the perception of
ages--do speak to us as well as any other we perceive. All
art is beautiful to someone. About angels and demons and their
perception, I write my own music to entertain and provoke useful
contemplation. So think about it. LOL
I respect life, cherish the free will of sentient beings, and
accept the sacredness of all creation. My bible is the wind and
the rain.
'Micheal' by 'Raphael'
See Ruffian Angel's pics
Biography by kathleen...
Ruffian Angel like most other Canadian artists, has a
large repertoire of activities in his musical background. Beginning a stage life in
music while he was in High School and University RUffian worked
his way through school doing stage performances and radio board
shifts in central and western Canada including his work as a radio
announcer for CKEK, CFEK, CHIN, CHAT, CHAT TV and more. He has
appeared on all major TV and Radio networks. He was "Uncle Mike"
in a Saturday morning children's show in southerna Alberta and is
the author of a popular Christmas radio special ("Christopher's
Prayer") aired every year on CBC Northern. Organizing rock
concerts and emceeing events he still found time to perform his
own music.
In the young days of the Web, Ruffian, in 1998 founded
WebRadio Canada International (WebRadio.ca) which still today
cyber-casts Canadian music to Canadian Forces troops stationed in
remote Canada and around the worled in over 40 different
peacekeeping missions sponsored by the United Nations or
NATO.
Ruffian started his musical stage career as a drummer with a band
called Marmalade and gradually widening his horizons to encompass
guitar, vocals, composing, song writing, and more.
Ruffian Angel's early music gigs were High School dances and
church basement "youth events" featuring his own original songs
like "Give My Love to Mary" which he wrote along with "Moving
From Town", and other music written by other band members.
In the 1990s he travelled central Ontario with a 12-String Robert Taylor guitar and a
6-string Godin with a solo
acoustic act that featured covers of James Taylor, Lyndsay
Buckingham, Justin Hayward and included some of his own work
including "All I ever Wanted", "Bleeding in Love", "Wonder Why"
and others less notable.
In the 2000s Ruffian angel played with a number of alternative
rock bands including some punk start-ups but settled down with
Themis and wrote "Angel
of Love", "Demon
Bites", "Sleeping Angels", "Love of Life",
"Shadow",
"Your
Angel", and "Shattered".
In 2008 Ruffian Angel, a devoted Wicca vegan, launched into a
new style of music he describes as Wicca
rock.
Ruffian in 2009 is Themis (band)'s front-man, combining
powerful vocals with occasional unrelenting guitar leads and a
generally percussive style of rhythmic guitar.
Musical Style, Wicca Rock
Wicca Rock has a characteristic guitar playing style that
resembles early rock and roll styles with percussive, full rhythm
guitar chords. There is still a little of the down stroke playing style from
punk, to add angular melodic lines instead of heavy chords. Minor
keys and minor mode melodies are prevalent, but major keys are
also used particularly in the brightest of songs such as Themis's
"Love of Life".
Wicca rock vocals, chorus, and some
spuriously added wind instrumentals are the re-creation of the
sounds of nature.
Other simulations of nature's sounds
include:
- a breeze moving through the trees (i.e.: vocals "The wind in
the trees of the forest of life sing a song like this..."
Themis -
Love of Life).
- the roar of an ocean crashing on jagged cliffs;
- droplets of rain ("splashed across my cheeks" - Themis - Love of
Life );
- the crackling of lightning (i.e.: the clopped out, over
flogged beautiful crash cymbal, Themis Drummer 'The Countess'
hauls around from show to show to create the lightning
crashes in Themis song "Your
Angel".);
- The cry of birds and roars of animals are some of the
"instruments" that help comprise Wicca rock.
In Wicca Rock, the guitar tone is sharp and
clear with
compressed sustain, and in some songs processed with light
electronic effects or sharply overdriven without much fuzz.
A bright overdriven guitar sound with
compression is delivered clean or
processed with some flanging and analog delay.
Creatively tuned ride cymbal patterns
maintain the melodic rhythm of the Wicca song while repetitive
closed and open high hat and Snare drum snaps
push the beat.
Themis
As themis lead singer and guitarist Ruffian Angel set
out in 2007 to morph the band into an all-ages effort, focussed
on producing Themis original material extolling the beauty of
nature and ecology in a Wiccan-like framework of ecological
beliefs.
According to Ruffian Angel, the members of Themis are
"Artistic outlaws in a rhythmic embrace of the law of nature
rather than human ordinance. Themis music is melodic artistry in
nature, love and life"
Bide The Wiccan Law Ye Must,
In Perfect Love, In Perfect Trust.
Eight Words The Wiccan Rede Fulfill:
An Ye Harm None, Do As Ye Will.
And Ever Mind The Rule Of Three:
What Ye Send Out, Comes Back To Thee.
Follow This With Mind And Heart,
And Merry Ye Meet, And Merry Ye Part.
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