New CD - Caspian Sky - finally done!

After 3 years or so of writing, recording, mixing, mastering, scheduling musicians, fretting, losing hair, sweating in a studio with no air conditioning, wearing cut off gloves in the winter in a studio with only ambient heat, cursing at frustrating guitar solos, exulting with arms flung high when my musician friends would bring life to the songs, this labor of love is finally done!

Now in the aftermath as I reflect on it all, as I try to taste the sense of it, try to hold on to it like the finish of a good wine, I wonder will there still be new songs?  Will the mysterious muse still tickle me with inspiration once in a while?  Or is this it?  I never know...it's always an amazing thing when suddenly I'm in the midst of another idea searching for chords & melody & lyrics that haven't been said yet in subtle ways that haven't been tried.  I suppose that's part of where the magic lies...

And so, it's now cast to the winds. It's the letting go & putting it out there & wondering if anyone will get anything from it?

But, as I've finally come to understand, a labor of love means I do this because I have to; I have no choice.  It's what I do.

I think I'll go say hi to my old Gibson J-50 now.  Maybe a little whiskey toast to my old friend.

The Winter of My Discontent

It's now the middle of winter; sometimes it feels like the winter of my discontent.  The next album is slow to finish due to life getting in the way and every day it takes 5 minutes to put on all my layers of outer clothing. Thank god for good Scottish tweed!  Even found a full length overcoat on Ebay that's warm & feels wonderful when it's on.  Makes me feel like a British aristocrat or Errol Flynn or Cary Grant; one of those dark, swarthy types.  Just like the picture I have of myself in my minds eye (please keep the mirrors out of sight).

It's the sort of discontent that generally starts with muttered profanities stemming from rejections of songs sent to the Taxi music listing service (which actually did some years ago get me a publishing contract).  And yet eventually I'll take a breath and once again remember why I started doing this songwriting thing; to find the magic in the next chord, to then go on to the next song or mix or recording session or lyric. I love the smell of  the cup of coffee next to the keyboard and the ring it creates on the wood or if it's after 5:00, a Jamesons sipped from a long stemmed glass purchased in Provence last year in a medieval town.  To begin to write a new song with my old Gibson J-50 which someone gave me when I was 14 with cracks on the back put there by my younger brother kicking it over when he was 8. Or more usually, on the piano to hear the overtones when searching for the right note for the right word for the right chord.  This is what gets me through my winter's discontent.

Of course, being married to the love of my life helps quite a bit... ;)

Hoping you all stay warm and out of the clutches of winter's discontent.