PRESS ROOM

Shaolin Records is the independent record label founded by Richard Del Connor in 1984.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
North Hollywood, California – October 10, 2014 - Shaolin Records, the independent record label of Shaolin Communications, is releasing the new album by American Zen, America’s first Buddhist rock band, titled End of the Line, recorded in a 1996 Toyota Tacoma 4-cylinder truck.

URL for this Press Release is: http://www.shaolinrecords.com/press/shREC_PR/shREC_PR2014-10-10.html

For more information:
Richard Del Connor, Record Producer

Video of "Use Me" (Live) at YouTube.com

Concert Appearance:
September 1, 2014.
Kulak’s Woodshed, North Hollywood, California
"Use Me”

YouTube Video Link:  americanzenband YouTube channel
Kung Fu Cowboy - Use Me (Live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLAzgrSTcx0&list=UUg28JaejKWUAmqf1q3eg2-w

Homeless song sung several hours after saying, “Goodbye,” to kids moving out of NoHo:
On September 1, Coyote woke up on the carpeted floor of his daughter’s apartment. He’d been cleaning the apartment of Caitlin O’Connor and packing up the last of her things for the past week. Coyote, born Richard Del Connor, had been sharing the vacated apartment with his son, Rory O’Connor, also sleeping on the floor. These last few days on Riverton Ave. were tumultuous with neighborhood cats stalking the windows and front door of the apartment in search of a young female cat, Patches, now in heat, belonging to Rory. Another cat in the house, a male named Bear, was about to be adopted by Coyote. A third cat belonging to his daughter, a male also persuing the female cat, made life difficult inside the house also.

Coyote’d been sleeping in his truck outside their apartment for the past two years since February 2013, when Coyote moved back to Los Angeles to cowrite the screenplay, Kung Fu Cowboy Rock & Roll Movie 1, with Scott Karahadian.

“All the tension and caution and focus on cleaning my daughter’s apartment, kept my mind off the most important question of all: Where am I going to go now?” explains Coyote. “Scott moved out of Van Nuys, and both my kids were now relocated to Sylmar, and I had no reason to be anywhere in particular... at all.”

So as Coyote left his daughter’s vacated apartment that afternoon, with his newly adopted cat, Bear, he had no idea where he was going. He did remember reading recently about Kulak’s Woodshed, and decided to stop by. When he did he was greeted by Jeremy and his sister visiting from England, who encouraged Coyote to perform that night. “It’s meant to be,” she added.

When Coyote took the stage that night for a one song performance, he chose the first song, “Use Me,” from his 4th of July released album, End of the Line by American Zen. While strumming his guitar like an old washboard Coyote speaks to the Kulak audience, “This is the song I wrote when I started my little journey a couple years ago.” Then Coyote begins singing to a bluesy rock’n’roll riff on an A chord:

“Moved to Vegas to drum for the lion dance
Left California to end a twenty year romance
But at the end of the Chinese New Year
They were done using me and said, “Move out of here”"

"So I was stuck in Vegas without a job or a friend
Homeless, living in the backyard of a freemason
He put me to work laying concrete and cleaning
But at the end of a month he said, “It’s time you were leaving”

"Use me - for something you need
Use me - for a place I can sleep
Use me - I need something to eat
I’ll work for real cheap”

At this time in the performance, Coyote realized he wasn’t singing about his situation two years ago--he was singing about his current situation which was sadly identical. As Coyote’s brain bounced from song lyrics to reality he choked up and couldn’t sing a line as his brain spiraled and emotions surfaced. Coyote broke his brain freeze with the comment, “Ahhh, this song, I don’t know if I wanna sing this much more.”

Coyote has a long history of abandoning songs he doesn’t enjoy singing. The first song of his first album was eliminated because Coyote didn’t want it to start the American Zen album series. “Too sad and depressing,” claimed Coyote. The song, “Peace of Mind #1” or just, “Peace of Mind,” was rerecorded for the second American Zen album, LEVEL 2 = Christ Killer. It has always been a favorite at performances and on this album, but Coyote decided one day, ‘I’m not singing that song anymore.’

Another song on the first album, “In the Darkness,” was split into two tracks of LEVEL 1 = Peace of Mind by American Zen. The instrumental song was probably a wise choice as it has earned many compliments in the past decade. The lyrics were recited as a poem on the side B of the album.

On the second album, LEVEL 2 = Christ Killer, Coyote removed the lyrics from “33 Bass Players,” and sung them into his flute while recording the instrumental version of the song. The lyrics became, “33 Bass Players Poem,” on the LEVEL 4 = Kung Fu Cowboy PART 1: King Solomon’s Temple album by American Zen. Coyote recites the lyrics with a slight melody and simultaneously snapping his fingers. The fingersnaps by Coyote give the poem a beatnik beat.

“I really want to perform and videotape this entire End of the Line album,” says Coyote. “I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to want to perform these songs. I’ve been purposely not writing any songs because I’ve got the Memorial Day Album to release this next year... and I just don’t have time to record right now. I need to be publisher and salesman for Shaolin Records and Shaolin Communications. I need to sell my books and records. Then I can record my next album and write my next book.”

Coyote concludes his performance at Kulak’s Woodshed of “Use Me” with an altered lyric:
“So as I write this song I’ve got no place to go.
This is the scariest year that I’ve ever known”

Coyote chokes up and uses a weird “pucker faced expression” to keep his lips from twitching and his jaw from freezing up as his sadness and loneliness overwhelm him.

“Ahh this song I don’t know if I wanna sing this much more!”

Then Coyote got back to the lyrics:

“I was just waitin’ for a paycheck to see where I’m goin’
Use me - for something you need
Use me - for a place I can sleep
Use me - I need something to eat
I’ll work for real cheap”

Coyote laughs, “Oh yes I did. For the next couple years - ‘til now. I’ve worked for real cheap”

This is the only teary-eyed emotional performance by Richard Del Connor/The Hippy Coyote/Kung Fu Cowboy ever caught on video. This emotional reenactment is why Coyote will stop performing any unhappy song. Unless he can feel it, he won’t play it. Coyote just doesn’t like these feelings of fear and desperation, that permeate many of the songs on American Zen’s newest album, End of the Line, released July 4, 2014 by Shaolin Records.

These past few years have been the most desperate years of Coyote’s life with work and money being harder to obtain than ever before. Currently, Coyote is supported by the sales of his American Zen albums and poetry books. As Buddha Zhen, students pay monthly group class tuitions of $50 or $50 for a private lesson. Buddha Zhen’s new book, Tao of Taoism - Using the Dao te Ching to Improve Your Life, will be featured at a book signing by Buddha Zhen at the Martial Arts Museum, Burbank, California, October 18, 1 to 5PM. We’re hoping that by selling 10,000 downloads of the book, Tao of Taoism, we can get Coyote back into a home. “I want a kitchen!” Coyote almost yells.

Coyote ended the performance with a bow never before seen from a music star, the "one-handed Shaolin monk bow." Only disciples of the original Shaolin Temple on Mt. Songshan in China, who are also Chan Buddhists can use this bow. Ask Coyote why.

YouTube VIDEO: Kung Fu Cowboy - Use Me (Live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLAzgrSTcx0&list=UUg28JaejKWUAmqf1q3eg2-w

Album page at shaolinRECORDS.com (song by song explanation of album with song samples)
http://www.ShaolinRecords.com/RecordStore-R/AmZen_EndOfTheLine.html

Lyrics at band website: americanZEN.org
http://www.americanzen.org/LEVEL_4/EndOfTheLine/END-01.html

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For more information contact:
Richard Del Connor at 858-717-7074

Shaolin Communications, PO Box 632, Verdugo City, CA 91046

“PR-shREC”
is a PRESS RELEASE published by Shaolin Communications
to promote the artists of Shaolin Records.

FEATURE EDITOR NOTE:
Richard Del Connor is The Hippy Coyote, is Buddha Z, and is the Shaolin Communications Press Agent while being the promoted talent. Perhaps Richard Del Connor being a one-man enterprise is as newsworthy as being all four members of American Zen. Richard Del Connor is:

American Zen - “America’s First Buddhist Rock Band™”
Buddha Kung Fu - “School for building Buddhas™” - founded 2008
Buddha Z - Shen-Lang Zhen, Buddha Zhen, Spirit Wolf of Truth
Coyote, The Hippy - Was The Coyote until 2007 when I became The Hippy Coyote
Kung Fu Cowboy - Western Virtues with Eastern Philosophies - nickname since 2003
Shaolin Chi Mantis Traditional Buddhist Gongfu and Taijiquan - founded 1992
Shaolin Communications - book publisher, marketing, distribution
Shaolin Music - ASCAP music publisher
Shaolin Pictures - Movie production company
Shaolin Records - Indie record label production company
Tai Chi Youth - 501(c)(3) founded 1996
Zen Buddhist Podcast of Shaolin Zen - over 500,000 downloads 2007 to 2010

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KUNG FU COWBOY ROCK & ROLL MOVIE 1: (screenplay by Richard based on true story of Richard)
Kung Fu Cowboy in covered wagon packaging Kung Fu Cowboy Rock & Roll Movie 1 for $20mil
Stung by scorpion working Brad Paisley concert as stagehand causes SCREENPLAY rewrite with ghosts

BUDDHA KUNG FU: (Richard = Buddha Zhen. Teaching Shaolin Kung Fu / Tai Chi since 1984)
Teaching Shaolin Kung Fu and Yang Tai Chi (Disciple of Wong Jack Man who beat up Bruce Lee)
Richard is school brother of David Carradine and certified as Chin Woo Athletic Association school.
Chin Woo = Chinese government subsidized after WWI: (see movie of Jet Li: Fearless)