songwriting
Story Behind the Song: “Ghosts”
I was ghosted, by someone I’d been very close to, back in late 2018. I won’t go into the details of that story here — I’ve already told parts of it in past blogs including “Story Behind the Song: Wishing You Well” and “Story Behind the Album: The Road That I Must Take”. “Ghosts” isn’t … Read more
Happy New Year (A Month Late)
Several times during 2020 I started writing posts about 2020 but abandoned them after a while. Each time it seemed like I’d written a bunch of words but really didn’t know what I was trying to say. A few times in the past, I’ve written New Year, or new decade, blogs around the time the … Read more
Story Behind the Album: Moments of Insanity
2020 has been a crazy year. Yeah, I know I’m stating the obvious — the year’s insanity may be the only point of agreement between my friends on the far left and my friends on the far right. However, were I to try to condense the story behind my latest album, Moments of Insanity, into … Read more
Story Behind the Song: “Stubborn Heart”
“Stubborn Heart” is a song about the conflict between the head and the heart. You know how it goes: The head tries to reason with the heart in matters of crushes, infatuation, love, passion, and various other thinking/feeling conflicts. The heart doesn’t want to hear logic, though. It’s into feelings, even at the risk of … Read more
Story Behind the Song: “Wishing You Well”
“Wishing You Well”, a song I wrote back in 2007 and recently included on my The Road That I Must Take album, came about as the result of a songwriting challenge. On June 18, 2007, the local Orange County chapter of Just Plain Folks picked two possible song titles, “Wishing You Well” and “The Last … Read more
Story Behind the Song: “Sweet, Sweet Color of Love”
On the last day of November 2011, TAXI, an organization that bills itself as helping “independent Songwriters, Artists, and Composers get their music to Record Labels, Film & TV Music Supervisors, Music Libraries, Music Publishers, Music Licensing Companies, Ad Agencies, and Video Game Companies”, published a listing that started out, “NY Ad Agency URGENTLY needs … Read more
Story Behind the Album: The Road That I Must Take
My latest (released August 2, 2019) album, The Road That I Must Take, is dedicated to those who are at a crossroads in life, trying to process lessons they’ve learned along the way and decide where to head next. Oh, it didn’t start out that way. Rather, a combination of life events over the past … Read more
Story Behind the Song: “Seasons”
It was November 11, 1997 when a songwriter from the UK name Derry Jones posted a critique request on a country songwriting mailing list named Orbison (so named after iconic singer Roy Orbison) that started, “I don’t usually do this, but I feel this song/lyric deserves a second look!” The lyric was called “Seasons”, and … Read more
Story Behind the Song: “Undertow”
The story behind my latest single, “Undertow”, starts back in early November of 2003. I’d emailed a relatively new co-writer, Mary Lou Sudkamp, about some potential opportunities with our first co-write, “I Didn’t Think”. She attached a new lyric, “Undertow”, to her reply, asking about my interest in writing music to it. I was pretty … Read more