My new EP "Someone Else's Dream" is entering its final phase and I hope to have it released by the end of the year. It's been over a year in the making with lots of help from my friend Kevin Ohlau. It was a really fun process to make this record. I recorded the guitar and vocal parts at home and then took my mobile recording rig down to Carbondale to have Kevin fill in the cracks. He added piano, bass, organ, sax, backing vocals, drums and whatever else we could find laying around his studio. It really pays to have your best friend be a talented multi-instrumentalist. We did this all in January and February before the virus hit and I've been mixing and mastering at home ever since. There were a couple tracks that weren't quite finished so I sent the files down to Kevin and he's recording them as I type. 

It's probably my most cohesive offering to date. The songs were written all in the same time period and the approach we took to recording them added the extra glue. Lots of heavy themes about dreaming, traveling, crying, and trying to figure out just what path to take in this life. I'll be posting some tracks here soon and offering the digital release here and on my bandcamp site. Special thanks to Nancy for designing the album cover above.

It's been over three years since my previous full-length release "Some Big Mystery" so I'm long overdue for some new music. "When You Need Me" contains songs collected over the last four years and captured in my basement studio. There were many songs drafted over that time period, but only 12 made the cut.
The themes here are largely about death and identity crisis, but overall the vibe is pretty positive. I would say that this is also my most folk and Americana influenced album to date. There's no dobro or banjo, but the record is full of cowboy chords, harmonica, and a yearnin' in my heart.
It was a lot of fun to make and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to David Allen for mastering.
Enjoy!

"Some Big Mystery" is now available on iTunes, Rdio, and Spotify for all you streamers out there. And now that Apple is launching it's new streaming service, I guess I'll have to check into that too. Although, Justin Vernon doesn't seem too thrilled about it.

I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a heavy streamer myself. And while it's true that my music purchasing has gone way down, my music listening and exposure to new music has gone way up. I think the obvious answer lies in paying the artists better royalties per stream. However, that probably means more intrusive advertising and higher subscription rates. So that puts the question back on to the individual. What's it worth to you?

Hot on the heels of my LP release this year comes the EP "Spare Parts." This 6 song set was recorded in one day with Kevin Ohlau (Young Loves/The Jewels/The Black Fortys) providing keys and backing vocals and David Brown (Secondary Modern/Das Bastard) as engineer. I wanted to take a very loose and stripped down approach, so David set up a couple of microphones and we gave each song just a few takes as we played live and arranged parts on the fly.

I'm really happy with the result and even more thrilled that Plaza Records has released it as a Cassette and Digital Download.

Stream the whole thing below:

(Born April 9, 2015 - 140 grams, 12" long)

The records arrived just in time for the release show, and by "just in time" I mean exactly 1 day before. How's that for cutting it close? They would have been in hand a lot sooner, but there was an issue with the initial test pressing that required David Allen re-master the last tracks on each side of the record to be less "hot" (My fault for not initially telling him I was going to have vinyl made). Apparently, as you get closer to the center of the record, and the circle gets smaller, the tracks become more prone to distortion, especially on the high-end (oversimplifying). This is why albums back in the day were sequenced so that each side ended with a quiet ballad, rather than a rocker. Very cool piece of history and definitely a learning experience for me. The people at Mobineko were very cool and helpful through the whole process and I will gladly recommend them for working hard to deliver the record "just in time."

Holding my first record was a profound experience, second only to the day my daughter was born. I've released CD's in the past, but it doesn't even come close to the feeling of taking the 12" vinyl out of a sleeve you designed and dropping the needle. I'm really proud of this release and owe many thanks to those who supported me through each and every stage. Now it's yours to have.

I've just gotten word that the lacquer has been cut and the vinyl LP should be shipped and ready just in time for an April 10 release show at Norb Andy's in Springfield, IL. With it's haunted history and nautical themes, Norb's is the ideal setting to navigate these tracks with a live audience. Many thanks to new owner Chris Radunzel and his staff for supporting local music.

Music will start at 9pm with a good-luck-following-that set from Micah Walk and Dave Littrell. I'll be selling the album at a "thanks for coming to the show" rate of $10 for the CD and $15 for the vinyl. Get it on your calendar by joining the Facebook event.

Last fall I called up my friend Kevin Ohlau (Jewels/Black Fortys/Young Loves) with an idea. I wanted to get together this winter and spend all day drinking tea and recording music. I also wanted to be completely unrehearsed to capture the spirit of when we would sit around the piano hashing out song structures and harmonies. The final ingredient was that it had to be done live, in one day, with two microphones, straight to tape.

Everything fell into place a couple weeks ago as we climbed the narrow attic staircase to David Brown's Jurassic Park studio in Carbondale, IL. The space was perfect. Low light, angular ceilings, wooden floors, and the constant hum of traffic on Highway 13 below. David was completely on-board with our shambolic approach to making this record and served as our producer, engineer and spirit guide without complaint. (He also saved us from near disaster as I attempted to order pizza from Quatro's...in Connecticut. How did I not remember 549-5326???)

After 8 hours of transcendence, fatigue, failure, and triumph we emerged with 6 new songs that will be part of a cassette and digital release this spring. After working on my first release "Some Big Mystery" in almost total isolation, it was refreshing to see the magic created from spontaneous collaboration. I'm really proud of what Kevin and David brought to these songs and can't wait for you to hear the result.

Here's a rough mix of what is to come.

Looking forward to my first "official" solo gig coming up on Feb 20, 2015 at Bar None in Springfield, IL. I'll be opening for some of my favorite local acts, The Deep Hollow (who recently won the American Songwriter Competition) and Josh Catalano and the Dirty Thoughts.

Also, just found out today that the CD's of "Some Big Mystery" are on their way and will be in hand for the show. Official record release party TBA.