After a thoughtful mail from Conley with the Free Culture group at Virginia Tech with a link to a case against the non-commercial restriction Creative Commons clause, I've decided to update the license for my music to remove this restriction. You're now free to use my music in a commercial situation, as long as credit is given and you share the results as well.

This is something that I've struggled with since the beginning. I've never liked the idea of giving somebody the rights to take my CD, burn it, and sell it. But realistically, who's going to do that? And if they do, as long as attribution is given, I'm still better off for it. Anyone who's going to pay for something that's available free is doing it to support the creator.

I remember Peter Mulvey once saying, after having had a box of his CDs stolen from his car, "hey, if the thief can find a way to sell my CDs, more power to him!" I've always operated under the philosophy that obscurity is a greater enemy than piracy, so this was the next logical step.

As always, if you want to use my music in a commercial context that you're not willing/able to release the result as Creative Commons (a film, commercial, etc), just drop me a line and we'll work something out.

The first installment is "Don't Close Your Eyes". You can watch here or on YouTube. Enjoy!

I'm thrilled to announce that my latest releases are now available! There are two albums packaged as one, called "The Simple Life". The songs are from the frantic sessions over the past 8 months, and the versions here are vastly improved over the demos I put out. I've never been happier with anything I've released - I hope you enjoy it, too.

As usual, you can download the MP3s for free, and you can also purchase a physical CD (name your own price!) to help support independent music:

Part 1: View · Buy CD · Download .ZIP · Stream
Heritage Place, Go, Saturday, The Parade, Revolution Now, Flypaper, I'm Letting Go, Morning Blue, The Bottom, Rogue Nation, History Repeats

Part 2: View · Buy CD · Download .ZIP · Stream
Ships, Flutter By Butterfly, On Brevity, Don't Close Your Eyes, Me and Billy Barnum, Shadows in the Moonlight, Good to Go, Memorized, The Mission, I Wanna Know, Afterglow

And PLEASE, consider passing along the word to your friends. In the absence of a record label, you are the person that gets my music out there. So anything you can do - blog about it, burn a copy for your friends, share it on Facebook/iLike/MySpace - really helps. Thanks! :D

Barring any problems, I'm aiming to release the new albums in one week (Tuesday the 22nd)! There will be rock!

I just wanted to post a quick update to prove I'm still alive. :) I've been hard at work on my next CD(s), and I'm getting very close. This time's going to be a little different; I'm going to release two albums again, but the physical version is going to be packaged as a single CD. The two albums are very different from one another, but they're designed to be complimentary when listened to in sequence.

While I've decided to keep making physical CDs (and it's still going to be name-your-own-price), there's not going to be a CD release party this time around. But I have something different planned that doesn't require a to the middle of nowhere to see it. :)

I'm also going to be doing an interesting project when I finish up the CDs. More on that later.

I'm not quite ready to commit to a release date yet, but I think I'm about a month off. There will be at least one brand new song, one resurrected chestnut, a number of completely re-recorded tracks and lots of tweaks. I have to admit that I'm really excited about how it's shaping up - the pieces are fitting together really nicely, and the whole is shaping up to be better than the sum of the parts. Stay tuned for more info!

I try not to get overly political here, but tomorrow, we here in Ohio (and you in Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island) have a critical decision to make in the primaries.

I'm supporting Barack Obama, and I just wanted to say why:

• Obama has been against the war in Iraq from day one. I truly doubt that Hillary would have handled the situation much differently than George Bush.
• His limited amount of "experience" in Washington is an asset to me. He's taken the high road and hasn't fallen into the pockets of lobbyists.
• He truly understands technology issues, which is important to me, and will be critical to the nation in the coming years.
• He has liberal values, but has shown an ability to reach across the aisle and appeal to both parties. This will be critical in getting elected, and in getting things done once in office.
• His positions have been consistent and from the heart. It seems like Hillary doesn't sneeze unless a focus group tells her to.
• I believe he has the best chance of beating John McCain, who looks like he's going to be a tough opponent. For better or worse, Hillary is divisive to the party.
• Obama is, well... likable. This is the factor that ideally wouldn't be important, but it's important for a President to be able to rally the nation behind a given cause. Hillary says that oratory doesn't matter - I have to disagree.

No matter who you support, please vote tomorrow. I hope you'll consider voting for Obama. Thanks, and I now return you to your regularly scheduled rock and roll music. :)

I've got a lot of new mixes ready, but not online. Sometime next week, I'll upload those and offer up a .ZIP file for anyone who fell behind. :)

The verdict: I'm really happy with the material I came up with, but I don't know if I'll do FAWM again. My WEEKS OF ROCK tend to be more insane, but they're over in seven days and my life can continue on as planned. I feel like my brain has been scrambled for an entire month. :)

But I also am close to having enough material and a concept for another two-at-once CD release. Stay tuned. ;-)

I now present to you the first instrumental song I've ever released. Enjoy!

Flypaper: (MP3, Share)

Production Notes:

The electric is a Strat with the bridge pickup going straight into a Pro Junior with a Apex 205 in front of it. There's a splash of reverb added to widen the stereo spectrum. The bass has a lot of crunchy Amplitube on it.