Warning: gear geekiness follows.

Here's another new tune! This one is almost definitely the creepiest song I've ever written. I won't give it away, but I'm guessing after listening to it, nobody will be brave enough to tell me they didn't like it. ;-)

Under the Stairs: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

I seem to be settling into a monthly groove for new songs. Progress is progress, I guess! Hey, that rhymed. Yay, I'm all set for April. :)

Anyway. Here's a new one called "Overthrown". It's been earworming me for weeks, so I guess that's a good sign. Here's hoping it ends up driving you nuts as well. :)

Overthrown: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

I've been wanting to write a song about immigration for years, but I could never figure out how to tackle it. I finally got my thoughts down on paper and said exactly what I wanted to say. Enjoy.

Border Blaster: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

I dusted off the 12-string to record this new tune. It's a bit cheerier than the rest of the new batch of tunes, musically at least. Enjoy!

Stars Collide: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

Here's one that's been gurgling around my head for a couple months now. It took forever to nail down onto tape, and I'm still not quite done, but this is a 2008 song and doesn't want to wait an extra day.

Oh, and this is my 150th song to be released! Granted, one of those songs was "Danger Bus", but I'm still pretty proud. :)

Private Hurricane: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

I finally have instrumental versions of the songs from "Here Today" available! I originally couldn't do these, but the remix project made it possible to make instrumental versions. You can download them all for free, and use them for free in your projects as you would with any of my other music.

I also have another new song that's about ready to launch. Check back in a day or two!

Here's another new tune. This one started its life as an acoustic song, but it never quite gelled for me. But since I've spending more time on this batch, and working with new ideas, I decided to try a completely different arrangement - an almost 70s soul feel - and it made all the difference.

20/20: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

Here's another new tune! This one clocks in at almost 6 minutes, making it easily the longest song I've ever done. Add to that a really complicated arrangement, and you've got a song that took way too much time to record. Enjoy!

Grey Snow: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

Sorry that I haven't been posting much here. Life's been really busy, but I've been working on the next album in every spare second I can find. I'm doing things a little differently this time around - I'm letting the songs gestate a little longer before I finish and release demos. There are four songs pretty much done so far, clocking in at almost 20 minutes already (they're longer and more intricate than usual). I'm pretty close with one of them, so check for it within the next couple of days.

In the meantime, I have a vast archive of unfinished riffs in search of lyrics. I was digging through it, looking for ideas, when I came across this gem. I wouldn't dare touch anything and try to improve upon it, because it's perfection as it is.

I have my newest tune, "Swansong", up on the site and remixed a little. Enjoy!

Swansong: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

It's been a good eight months since I wrote a song, so when it was brought to my attention that my five year Songfightaversary was coming up, I decided to put together a song for this week's contest for old times' sake. You can listen and download it here! The fight title is "Stomach For It", but I'm renaming my entry to "Swansong". While you're there, take a listen to the other great tunes and be sure to vote for your favorites!

I won't preach that you should go out and vote, because you've either heard it a hundred times today, or you're living in a cave. But I am curious who you loverly readers voted for. So it's poll time!

Hey everyone, sorry for the quietness around here lately. Things have been a little crazy. :) But I've got some new tunes in the works that should be trickling out shortly. In the meantime, I wanted to pass along a couple links to new interviews I've done recently.

I'm featured in this month's issue of Findlay Living magazine. It's pretty accurate, though I don't recall ever playing at the Springs of Life café for some odd reason. :D

I was also interviewed for the GarageBand.com newsletter this month. That was pretty cool, because it goes out to over 90,000 people. The full text of it is in the "Read More" below...

My first CD sucked.

Ok, that might have been a little harsh. Since 2004, I've been constantly haunted by "Here Today". The songs are great, probably some of the best I've written (since they were the best of everything I'd done up to that point in my life). But the recording. Yikes. The performances and the production were laughable, and not even close to the standards of the other CDs that followed. That's why it's been "out of print" for awhile now.

Then, one day, I had a flash of brilliance. I still had the raw sessions laying around in my closet, trapped inside an external 9 GB SCSI drive that sounds like a 747 taking off, attached to a Roland VS-1680 recorder. I decided on the spot: I'm going to pull those raw recordings into my modern computer recording workstation and see if I can't make a listenable album out of them.

My self-imposed limits:

1. Use only what was recorded back then. No new recordings.
2. Keep the spirit of the arrangements intact.
3. Use any tools I have to make the existing audio sound better.

The result is both stunningly improved and only subtly different. Take a listen for yourself, or pick up a copy of the newly-back-in-print CD or FLAC version from my store. :)