I've been experimenting with a 15 second format for songs with videos. It's crazy trying to cram a coherent thought or two into such a short time frame, but it's really opened up my creative flow! I've been using Shotcut for the videos and it's got a steep learning curve, but it's really fun getting the hang of it. I've been posting them on social media and YouTube (the 15 second thing is for Instagram and TikTok). A few ground rules I set for myself: Only found object footage, no filming allowed... but by the same token, I can only use  music I recorded myself- no samples allowed. I'll upload them here, but I invite you to follow me on social media as well- it's fun when they pop up on your feed....

I hope everyone is doing okay during these fraught times- I have been letting the blog slide but am back on track! Since last we met, a few new  tunes appeared on the site; the first is called " I couldn't Find My Way Back Home" and is a sweet, sad song about disconnection. It might be dementia, it might be dissolution, that wasn't really revealed to me while I was writing it. Anyway it's got a cool pedal steel part, so is definitely worth a listen. The next song to appear is "Find Another Way" which is kind of a Tex Mexy song about the usual stuff that goes wrong when we don't treat each other with the respect we deserve... And last but not least is a pretty little neo folk ditty called "Whispering Wind". The last few months have made me think a lot about mortality, which is pretty much the theme of this number. It started out with a Byrdsy 12 string feel, but morphed into something a little colder and more electronic. The wind blowing in the background is white noise being generated by a synthesizer. The bass is pretty busy! Now I've got to get back to the studio and finish up about 10 tunes that are jostling for my attention...

Here's my latest single, "Feet First". The title pretty much sums up the song, which actually started with a quote from my dad about how he did not plan to move out of his house. He morphed into the little old lady in verse four and the rest of the song just kind of grew around that, and includes some fairly unsavory characters, plus yours truly in the last verse...

Thanks so much for checking my music; Feet First is kind of a lurch from the gentle melancholy of the first two tunes, that's just the way they came out. There's been a bit of a traffic jam of tunes on the launchpad, so I'm going to be releasing them as close as I can to every two weeks or so and they are all over the map stylistically, so as they say about New England " If you don't like the weather, wait a day..."

Here's my second single, titled "Just A Phase". I was calling it "Boulder and Stream" as a working title, but it sounded too much like a magazine at the dentist office! It's a sweet tune about the feeling of treading water while the rest of the world moves on- we've all been there!

Well I finally released my first single - jeez, a ten year old could have done it faster!  I had a great time recording and producing it and have tried to keep it balanced between rough and polished. It's really easy these days to produce a perfect record, with every hair in place under a glossy sheen of gel. As an art school dropout it made me think about music in terms of painting; we have to make a conscious decision where to show our brushstrokes. It's hard to labor over a drum track when there's a session guy in GarageBand just waiting to show how it's done! As an old guy, I still play through the whole song, whereas everyone else these days is cutting and pasting away.

That said, I have to admit that my music is just as electronic as anyone else's - I play all the instruments, which is only possible in the digital age. I'm amazed at the power of an iPad - I remember when you had to switch out drives with every song - or chain together a bunch of ADATs just to multitrack. The best thing about home recording is the luxury of doing things over until you get them right without worrying about the money clock. I hope you enjoy my music and please get in touch!