Keeping the Dream Alive – The Art Work

A collection of songs is all well and good, but you can’t make a good old fashioned CD without artwork! Even today’s digital downloads come with cover imagery.

Don’t you just love a good album cover? Mine may not be Roger Dean but you know what, it’s mine! I think the logo in particular is pretty cool. I love what my son Dylan did with the back cover, bringing the ‘organic’ feel of the stone wall imagery to my collection of mostly “roots rock” songs.

The cover of Keeping the Dream Alive was created by Glenn Cotler, using an image I grabbed from the video for Hurtin’ Up My Heart. My son Dylan put the final touches on it using by making the logo pop with a 3D effect, and giving the title more character. Both of these artistic talents used Photoshop for their work. (Double click the pics for a larger hi def view).

The back cover was created by Dylan, collaborating with me along the way. The lad’s got some graphic design talent, right?

The final piece we need to be ready to send the whole shebang off to CD Baby for professional reproduction is the CD label itself, which nears completion as I write this!

Thanks Dylan and Glenn for your talent and your work (and your patience working with me to get these images to where I was ready to use them). Next stop, the release of the record!

And Then There Were Three (Kids, That is!)

No sooner had I taken a stab at (what was then) the brave new world of computer based recording and self-production when along came our second child, and the battle for free time to play and record was more or less lost, at least for a while.

Time Flies

I often tell the story of how I had purchased a dual deck tape recorder in the mid 90’s, and how I had an almost Rip Van Winkle-esque moment years later, realizing how much I had gotten totally sidetracked by life. One day in 2004 or so I found myself staring at the tape deck and wondering what the heck was on the tape sitting in the once-new but now long ignored machine. I fired it up and was listening to the song idea I had apparently been working on the last time I used it, when suddenly I hear (in the background on the recording) a baby crying followed by my voice saying “I’m coming!”. That’s when I recalled the night I made that recording – it was the night after Dylan was born, 7 years prior in 1997! Christine and our newborn son had stayed in the hospital overnight and Ian (then 2 years old) and I had come home. I could hardly believe that seven years had gone by – I could almost hear the wooosshh! – and I hadn’t touched my recording equipment once in all that time.

Over the years while the kids were really young, I still played a bit and wrote from time to time. Having to play my acoustic guitar pretty quietly while the kids slept had the gradual effect of leading me to appreciate “folky” singer-songwriters more than I had when I was younger. As the first decade of the new century rolled on, I soon became of fan of Bob Dylan (hated him when I was a young prog-snob) and other musicians I never would have thought twice about as a teenager, including Jewel, Jack Johnson, and other similar mellow song smiths.

And Still I Wait …

So while the years rolled on I kept playing but had totally stopped recording. I was glad to have Pass It On to listen to from time to time and looked forward to improving on it when the time was right. One song on that record that that I still appreciate is “And Still I Wait …”. As with all the other songs on this collection, it was still a very amateur recording, but the song itself had some promise. Years later, I had some fun making this video by playing the song on my computer and using Camtasia to record those cool Windows Media Player visuals that were popular in older versions of Windows.

Next … Fast Forward to 2011 and my first professionally mixed song, “My Blue Eyed Girl“

My Very First Self Produced Original Song – Antigua (come to de Islands …)

So, let’s start at the beginning. Isn’t it fun to remember first steps? Whether they be literal – like your child’s first steps, or figurative, like the first time you cooked a delicious dish that later became a family favorite. I remember well the first song I ever recorded on my own (of course, it helps to still have a copy of the end result!).

In 1993 I recorded my very first self-produced recording, in the little apartment that my wife Christine and I lived in, in Peekskill, NY. The song was written on our honeymoon (okay … one guess which tropical island we selected for our romantic getaway?). It was a couple of years later, after I had purchased my first 4 track recording deck, that I recorded and built upon the basic idea that I had developed while staring out at the azure ocean in 1991. My beautiful bride was at my side and we were in a tropical paradise when I first plucked the medody that would become the basis of this tune!

Since my very first experience with recording music, I’ve been enamored with the process … adding creative new layers to an underlying melodic structure to create a new musical “being” that becomes so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s not unlike adding layers of flavor to a something you are cooking … a soup, a lasagna, a chili … each can take on a new personality with the addition of new elements (yeah, I like food analogies almost as much as like food!). I imagine sculpting and painting must also be similarly enthralling for those who dabble in them, yet still music is uniquely its own experience.

With the recording of this song, I particularly recall having to put my little Fender “Mustang” amp in the closet in the bedroom to mic and record my electric guitar, so I didn’t disturb the neighbors! The end result of this first effort lacks in recording quality, and while it may not be particularly brilliant end product, it is sweet and pleasing in its own right, and I like to think it showed promise (that I hope I have since exceeded!).

Next … Introducing … The Sizzling Mice Kwartet and “Pass It On”.

Let’s Go Baby! Time to get my Music on!

Well folks – here we are! After decades of plinkin’ and a-pluckin’ and caterwauling down in my basement and in my car as I drove to work … at long last I’m just about ready to unleash my music on the world. My first professionally recorded collection of original music is a 5 song EP titled “Keeping the Dream Alive” (yeah, Ed … I can’t help but think of you every time I say, hear, or write it!).

KDA is mastered and ready to be delivered to CD Baby for manufacturing and for digital distribution as soon as my son Dylan and I complete the back cover and CD label design (the front cover is ready to roll, much thanks to friend Glenn Cotler, artist extraordinaire!).

I’ve put up this web site to start documenting my work “for the ages” (nyuk, nyuk) and to provide access and promotion. I’m going to share some of the story behind the journey that got me here. Naturally, as I finish new material, I’ll be sharing that here too (and some day in the next few weeks I’ll announce the availability of Keeping the Dream Alive!). I hope friends, family, and other fans will enjoy the stories and find pleasure in the music.

Over time I look forward to this site being a place to share my music, to hopefully hear from some of you, and maybe even do cool things like webcast live performances!

Here’s the cover of the new record (click the image for a higher res look!).

Please click through to My Very First Self Produced Original Song – Antigua (come to de Islands …) to read more!