I’m going to tell you about my solo albums that I’ve done in the last few years here. There will soon be some dedicated podcasts here soon for these albums, and info on getting copies of them as well. Enjoy!
“Exile On Johnson St.”
This album was recorded over a couple weeks in July 1999, literally a few weeks before I moved to Miami. It was recorded in the original Squrkett Sound in Macomb, Illinois. It was a real fun challenge as well as a great learning experience to try to do a project almost totally on my own. By this time in my life Inkognito had broken up, and I had a bunch of songs that didn’t fit what Inkognito was doing, so I decided to finish up a few more of the songs, and put a few more that I had laying around that I never did anything with. I went in with 18 song ideas, recorded 17 of them, 13 that were new recordings. When I mixed everything down to CD in 2002 I cut 2 songs off, and had a really concise 15 song set. Other than a couple songs that had a drum machine, and one song that had a couple solos by Inkognito guitarist Mike Koontz, I played every instrument on the album. Sonically, the album doesn’t sound as crisp as the later ones, but the general vibe and energy is really good. When I do my acoustic shows, songs from “Exile” are fixtures in the setlists, especially “How Does It Feel” and “Elvis Lives in Big Neck.” And if you’re wondering, there really is a town in Illinois called Big Neck, I’ve been there, and it figures greatly in the “mythology” with me and my friends! Let me give you a track by track tour of “Exile On Johnson St.:”
“Revive” and “Revive Reprise” - A general feeling I was having at this time, like waking up from a dream and seeing you’re better for it all. There are 2 versions of this instrumental on here for nothing more than to bookmark the beginning and the end of the album.
“Turnaround” - It feels like a ‘starting over’ song, and since that was what I was going through in my personal life at that point, it seemed to fit, and it makes a good opening song on the album.
“New Horizons” - Written in 1988 on the eve (literally) of my freshman year at Western Illinois University. It originally appeared on a demo I made in 1989 for friends called “Trick Bag.” Before you ask, that demo is no longer availiable and there are no plans to change that. I always loved the song, and when I decided to do this album, this was the first song selected for it. What is on this album is a new version with a full band. I also recorded a new acoustic version at this time too, but kept it off this album for time concerns. The acoustic version is a bonus track on “Broken Clock.”
“Vent” - Have you ever been so mad that all you could do is rant about everything that bugged you for days on end? That’s where this song is coming from. Writing this stuff down is actually very therapudic I think.
“Those Restless Nights” - A nice little love from afar type of tune. I guess I’m a bit of a romantic at heart or something? Good feel though...
“You’ve Got Me Running” - The music is new, but the lyrics were much older than that. The original lyrics were given to me by a guy whose name I can’t remember, but I ended up rewriting them once I had the music. One of my favorite songs on here...
“How Does It Feel” - An attitude/pissed off song directed at a person that I once cared a lot for. I sometimes try not to write songs that are directly about me or things that happen to me, but as in the case of a few other songs over the years, including “New Horizons” they still pop up and bring a personal touch to things...
“Wrestling For Sunlight” - Sometimes in life you feel like there’s never going to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Most of the time, there is, but you have to look for it. This is my journal of that journey, and how I got there. I saw the phrase ‘wrestling for sunlight’ on a billboard once, and that is how I got on this line of thought.
“Pappilon” - A little instrumental that I’ve been toying around with for years, and finally decided to record it for something.
“Town To Town” - A bluesy song that is just fun to listen to. The song was written in 1991 for Inkognito, but it didn’t fit with that band, then this version was recorded for the Conspiracy Inc. project (coming soon), and it somehow ended up here.
“She’s Always Alone” - Written in 1991 for Inkognito, but we never used it. Mike Koontz played the main solo and the outro solo on this song. A nice laid back song about this beautiful girl that we all saw a lot, but as the title suggests, she was always alone. We found out later that she was a psycho...
“No Regrets (It’s Over Now)” - Another break up song that dates back to about 1991. I’ve always liked the lyrics, but I had trouble getting music that I thought did them justice till I was working on this album.
“Elvis Lives In Big Neck” - If you drive in Illinois from Macomb to Quincy, you pass through this town, although all it is is a couple buildings and an intersection! This “sprawling megalolplous” became an inside joke with me and some friends of mine. If you think about it though, if Elvis WAS alive, who’d look there...................?
“Exiles” - A fun uplifting attempt at writing an anthem for the non-conformist in all of us. The title of this album seemed to change almost every week until this song came along; after this, there was no doubt
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“Broken Clock”
After I moved to Miami, I started playing some acoustic shows here while I was trying to get a new band going. I really had a blast doing them, and I started writing some new songs to have in the set. Then Citizen Bane was formed and was starting to get going, so I devoted my time to getting that band off the ground. Then Citizen Bane broke up after the first gig! I started doing acoustic shows again, and then started about doing another album. “Broken Clock” was recorded over the summer of 2002, and other than drums I played all the instruments. The reason I didn’t play drums is that I don’t have room in Squrkett Sound South to do them! The bulk of the songs were songs that I had written for the acoustic show, with a few more thrown in for good measure...and now, the songs:
“The Train” - Written in about 1 hour while trying to work out another song. All about trying to regain a positive attitude I guess, hop on!
“Promised Land” - I’ve never really been a love song kind of guy, and this would have to be as close to one as you can get without really saying it.
“South” - Inspired by my cross country move to Florida. I was looking headlong into a clean slate, and looking forward to all that awaited me, good or bad.
“Waitin’ For The Storm” - The song started out by messing around with an out of tune guitar at a music store. I managed to get a tuning that sounded cool, and then the music and lyrics just came almost instantly. They were sort of inspired by all the news about a possible hurricane that was coming close to Miami a month or two after I got there, but you can get another interpretation from the lyrics too..........
“Close To Home” - About missing someone and not being able to wait till the next time you can see them. Not sure what inspired the lyrics. One of the last songs finished for the album.
“Broken Clock” - A bit of wishful thinking. Ever notice that everything we do nowadays is measured by what time the clock says it is? I figure that if we have to live that way, I want a clock that doesn’t work. I don’t want to think about what time it will be, I want to think about right now!
“Make A Stand” - When you get knocked down you basically have 2 choices: you can stay down, or you can get up and get to work. I always choose the latter...
“Fires Of Babylon” - The events of September 2001 has impacted all of us, and this is my take on what I saw over in the aftermath. I wasn’t sure that this was going to be here, but everyone that heard it said that I had to put it on here.
“Leap Of Faith” - One of the most upbeat songs that I’ve ever written. Which is really saying something as I usually don’t write songs like this. But, if you think about it, everyday that we decide to get out of bed, or wake up for that matter, is a leap of faith...there’s your Zen moment!
“Keep Movin’” - If you stop you die, you’ve got to keep movin’ no matter what life throws at you...
“Revive Reprieve” - A continuation of the instrumentals that bookend the “Exile On Johnson St.” album. It’s a simple little riff that I’ve been able to stretch out over 2 albums, and this is now a tradition! I also wanted to use this as a way to like this album to “Exile,” as I was trying to write from the same space that most of that album came from. Hope it worked!
“New Horizons (acoustic)” - One of my favorite songs that I’ve ever done. There is an electric version on “Exile,” and I also recorded this version during the sessions for that album, but I had to cut one off for the CD. This is actually the way that the song was concieved, and the other version was the experiment to see how well it worked as an electric song. I have to say that I still like this version better, which is why I put this version recorded in 1999 on this album. And it fits well here too!
===========================================================================================
“Jacuzzi Blue: Movie For Your Ears Volume 1”
My first all instrumental album. There are 21 songs on the album and the styles range from straight up rock/metal stuff to orchestral, avant-garde, and even some hillbillly thrown in for good measure! This CD was recorded in 2003, although I had been writing things for it for a while before I actually started recording. It was an experiment of sorts. It was the first time that I used loops on the computer to help flesh out some songs, and also the first time that I tried to do a totally instrumental album. I had so much success with the loops that it enabled me to finish up the Conspiracy Incorporated ‘box set’ that had been stalled for a number of years. The recording took about 2-3 months here at Squrkett Sound South.
===========================================================================================
“Statements and Splinters”
A mainly all acoustic album (electronic drums notwithstanding) that was recorded in the spring of 2004. This one was a combination of songs that had been floating around since I had finished “Broken Clock,” and songs that I was writing while I was doing the Conspiracy Incorporated project. Basically, when I would hit a point where I was having trouble coming up with stuff that I needed for C.I., I would start messing around with an acoustic guitar to get my mind off whatever was stalling me. It helped a little, but I ended up starting to stockpile a lot of acoustic songs. In March 2004, as I was putting the Conspiracy songs into the running order for the CDs, I realized that I had an album’s worth of really cool little acoustic songs, so, the day after I finished C.I., I started recording these songs:
“Other Shoe” - This is the only song that wasn’t written with the story mentioned above. This song goes back to 1993-4, if I remember right. I usually open my acoustic shows with this one, and I was originally use the demo I have of if from that time, but I found that I’d changed the arrangement of the song over the years, so I decided to update it.
“Roller Coaster” - A quick uptempo country barnburner...sit back, lock yourself in...
“Old Ghosts” - Our pasts are never as far away as we’d like to think...
“Kingdom Of Fear” - A ‘political’ type song inspired by Hunter S. Thompson. I had wanted to send it to him to see what he thought, but he’s not with us anymore. This one and “Old Ghosts” work really well live.
“Another Crossroads” - Cool slide work by someone who isn’t that good with slide!
“Murderer’s Row” - A story song, something I’d never tried before this. Came out really good I think...
“Revive Reload” - Another in the ongoing “Revive” series. It’s starting to become a challenge to keep coming up with variations on that song! I’m hoping to eventually, over the course of my solo albums, to be able to do a compilation CD that is all the “Revive” songs! I have 5 as of now, with another solo CD in progress as of March ’06, so I’m getting there!
“New Day” - Just a song about letting go of old grudges, built up anger and aggrivation that was probably really important to you when you’re 18-25 and now it doesn’t mean anything to you now...just let it go!
“Right Now” - About a guy I knew that thought he was the coolest guy in the world when it came to chasing girls...in reality he had no nerve, and missed a whole lot of chances with some women who were really into him. He just would say “it’s not the right time” and stuff like that...last I heard he still hasn’t got a girlfriend...
“In My Own Hands” - Take Charge, already!
“Lessons In Real Time” - Beautiful song, a real challenge to play live, in fact, I’ve yet to get to the point where I can play it live right yet...But I plan on having it in the set for the next group of solo shows I do, so I have no choice but to get it down!
“What Will Be Will Be” - I read a lot of books about Zen philosophy, and this song kind of comes from those readings...if you’re a musician, you MUST read “Zen Guitar” by Phillip Sudo!
“I’m On My Way” - The first true-as-I-can-get-it blues songs I’ve ever done. Even played upright bass on it, and it’s one of my favorite songs on this album.
Well, as of March 2006 these are all the solo albums that I have done. I’m going to be putting up podcasts of the albums in the next few weeks and months, as well as getting a new album out. I’ll talk about that one in a separate entry here on the site. Thanks for reading!
“Exile On Johnson St.”
This album was recorded over a couple weeks in July 1999, literally a few weeks before I moved to Miami. It was recorded in the original Squrkett Sound in Macomb, Illinois. It was a real fun challenge as well as a great learning experience to try to do a project almost totally on my own. By this time in my life Inkognito had broken up, and I had a bunch of songs that didn’t fit what Inkognito was doing, so I decided to finish up a few more of the songs, and put a few more that I had laying around that I never did anything with. I went in with 18 song ideas, recorded 17 of them, 13 that were new recordings. When I mixed everything down to CD in 2002 I cut 2 songs off, and had a really concise 15 song set. Other than a couple songs that had a drum machine, and one song that had a couple solos by Inkognito guitarist Mike Koontz, I played every instrument on the album. Sonically, the album doesn’t sound as crisp as the later ones, but the general vibe and energy is really good. When I do my acoustic shows, songs from “Exile” are fixtures in the setlists, especially “How Does It Feel” and “Elvis Lives in Big Neck.” And if you’re wondering, there really is a town in Illinois called Big Neck, I’ve been there, and it figures greatly in the “mythology” with me and my friends! Let me give you a track by track tour of “Exile On Johnson St.:”
“Revive” and “Revive Reprise” - A general feeling I was having at this time, like waking up from a dream and seeing you’re better for it all. There are 2 versions of this instrumental on here for nothing more than to bookmark the beginning and the end of the album.
“Turnaround” - It feels like a ‘starting over’ song, and since that was what I was going through in my personal life at that point, it seemed to fit, and it makes a good opening song on the album.
“New Horizons” - Written in 1988 on the eve (literally) of my freshman year at Western Illinois University. It originally appeared on a demo I made in 1989 for friends called “Trick Bag.” Before you ask, that demo is no longer availiable and there are no plans to change that. I always loved the song, and when I decided to do this album, this was the first song selected for it. What is on this album is a new version with a full band. I also recorded a new acoustic version at this time too, but kept it off this album for time concerns. The acoustic version is a bonus track on “Broken Clock.”
“Vent” - Have you ever been so mad that all you could do is rant about everything that bugged you for days on end? That’s where this song is coming from. Writing this stuff down is actually very therapudic I think.
“Those Restless Nights” - A nice little love from afar type of tune. I guess I’m a bit of a romantic at heart or something? Good feel though...
“You’ve Got Me Running” - The music is new, but the lyrics were much older than that. The original lyrics were given to me by a guy whose name I can’t remember, but I ended up rewriting them once I had the music. One of my favorite songs on here...
“How Does It Feel” - An attitude/pissed off song directed at a person that I once cared a lot for. I sometimes try not to write songs that are directly about me or things that happen to me, but as in the case of a few other songs over the years, including “New Horizons” they still pop up and bring a personal touch to things...
“Wrestling For Sunlight” - Sometimes in life you feel like there’s never going to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Most of the time, there is, but you have to look for it. This is my journal of that journey, and how I got there. I saw the phrase ‘wrestling for sunlight’ on a billboard once, and that is how I got on this line of thought.
“Pappilon” - A little instrumental that I’ve been toying around with for years, and finally decided to record it for something.
“Town To Town” - A bluesy song that is just fun to listen to. The song was written in 1991 for Inkognito, but it didn’t fit with that band, then this version was recorded for the Conspiracy Inc. project (coming soon), and it somehow ended up here.
“She’s Always Alone” - Written in 1991 for Inkognito, but we never used it. Mike Koontz played the main solo and the outro solo on this song. A nice laid back song about this beautiful girl that we all saw a lot, but as the title suggests, she was always alone. We found out later that she was a psycho...
“No Regrets (It’s Over Now)” - Another break up song that dates back to about 1991. I’ve always liked the lyrics, but I had trouble getting music that I thought did them justice till I was working on this album.
“Elvis Lives In Big Neck” - If you drive in Illinois from Macomb to Quincy, you pass through this town, although all it is is a couple buildings and an intersection! This “sprawling megalolplous” became an inside joke with me and some friends of mine. If you think about it though, if Elvis WAS alive, who’d look there...................?
“Exiles” - A fun uplifting attempt at writing an anthem for the non-conformist in all of us. The title of this album seemed to change almost every week until this song came along; after this, there was no doubt
===========================================================================================
“Broken Clock”
After I moved to Miami, I started playing some acoustic shows here while I was trying to get a new band going. I really had a blast doing them, and I started writing some new songs to have in the set. Then Citizen Bane was formed and was starting to get going, so I devoted my time to getting that band off the ground. Then Citizen Bane broke up after the first gig! I started doing acoustic shows again, and then started about doing another album. “Broken Clock” was recorded over the summer of 2002, and other than drums I played all the instruments. The reason I didn’t play drums is that I don’t have room in Squrkett Sound South to do them! The bulk of the songs were songs that I had written for the acoustic show, with a few more thrown in for good measure...and now, the songs:
“The Train” - Written in about 1 hour while trying to work out another song. All about trying to regain a positive attitude I guess, hop on!
“Promised Land” - I’ve never really been a love song kind of guy, and this would have to be as close to one as you can get without really saying it.
“South” - Inspired by my cross country move to Florida. I was looking headlong into a clean slate, and looking forward to all that awaited me, good or bad.
“Waitin’ For The Storm” - The song started out by messing around with an out of tune guitar at a music store. I managed to get a tuning that sounded cool, and then the music and lyrics just came almost instantly. They were sort of inspired by all the news about a possible hurricane that was coming close to Miami a month or two after I got there, but you can get another interpretation from the lyrics too..........
“Close To Home” - About missing someone and not being able to wait till the next time you can see them. Not sure what inspired the lyrics. One of the last songs finished for the album.
“Broken Clock” - A bit of wishful thinking. Ever notice that everything we do nowadays is measured by what time the clock says it is? I figure that if we have to live that way, I want a clock that doesn’t work. I don’t want to think about what time it will be, I want to think about right now!
“Make A Stand” - When you get knocked down you basically have 2 choices: you can stay down, or you can get up and get to work. I always choose the latter...
“Fires Of Babylon” - The events of September 2001 has impacted all of us, and this is my take on what I saw over in the aftermath. I wasn’t sure that this was going to be here, but everyone that heard it said that I had to put it on here.
“Leap Of Faith” - One of the most upbeat songs that I’ve ever written. Which is really saying something as I usually don’t write songs like this. But, if you think about it, everyday that we decide to get out of bed, or wake up for that matter, is a leap of faith...there’s your Zen moment!
“Keep Movin’” - If you stop you die, you’ve got to keep movin’ no matter what life throws at you...
“Revive Reprieve” - A continuation of the instrumentals that bookend the “Exile On Johnson St.” album. It’s a simple little riff that I’ve been able to stretch out over 2 albums, and this is now a tradition! I also wanted to use this as a way to like this album to “Exile,” as I was trying to write from the same space that most of that album came from. Hope it worked!
“New Horizons (acoustic)” - One of my favorite songs that I’ve ever done. There is an electric version on “Exile,” and I also recorded this version during the sessions for that album, but I had to cut one off for the CD. This is actually the way that the song was concieved, and the other version was the experiment to see how well it worked as an electric song. I have to say that I still like this version better, which is why I put this version recorded in 1999 on this album. And it fits well here too!
===========================================================================================
“Jacuzzi Blue: Movie For Your Ears Volume 1”
My first all instrumental album. There are 21 songs on the album and the styles range from straight up rock/metal stuff to orchestral, avant-garde, and even some hillbillly thrown in for good measure! This CD was recorded in 2003, although I had been writing things for it for a while before I actually started recording. It was an experiment of sorts. It was the first time that I used loops on the computer to help flesh out some songs, and also the first time that I tried to do a totally instrumental album. I had so much success with the loops that it enabled me to finish up the Conspiracy Incorporated ‘box set’ that had been stalled for a number of years. The recording took about 2-3 months here at Squrkett Sound South.
===========================================================================================
“Statements and Splinters”
A mainly all acoustic album (electronic drums notwithstanding) that was recorded in the spring of 2004. This one was a combination of songs that had been floating around since I had finished “Broken Clock,” and songs that I was writing while I was doing the Conspiracy Incorporated project. Basically, when I would hit a point where I was having trouble coming up with stuff that I needed for C.I., I would start messing around with an acoustic guitar to get my mind off whatever was stalling me. It helped a little, but I ended up starting to stockpile a lot of acoustic songs. In March 2004, as I was putting the Conspiracy songs into the running order for the CDs, I realized that I had an album’s worth of really cool little acoustic songs, so, the day after I finished C.I., I started recording these songs:
“Other Shoe” - This is the only song that wasn’t written with the story mentioned above. This song goes back to 1993-4, if I remember right. I usually open my acoustic shows with this one, and I was originally use the demo I have of if from that time, but I found that I’d changed the arrangement of the song over the years, so I decided to update it.
“Roller Coaster” - A quick uptempo country barnburner...sit back, lock yourself in...
“Old Ghosts” - Our pasts are never as far away as we’d like to think...
“Kingdom Of Fear” - A ‘political’ type song inspired by Hunter S. Thompson. I had wanted to send it to him to see what he thought, but he’s not with us anymore. This one and “Old Ghosts” work really well live.
“Another Crossroads” - Cool slide work by someone who isn’t that good with slide!
“Murderer’s Row” - A story song, something I’d never tried before this. Came out really good I think...
“Revive Reload” - Another in the ongoing “Revive” series. It’s starting to become a challenge to keep coming up with variations on that song! I’m hoping to eventually, over the course of my solo albums, to be able to do a compilation CD that is all the “Revive” songs! I have 5 as of now, with another solo CD in progress as of March ’06, so I’m getting there!
“New Day” - Just a song about letting go of old grudges, built up anger and aggrivation that was probably really important to you when you’re 18-25 and now it doesn’t mean anything to you now...just let it go!
“Right Now” - About a guy I knew that thought he was the coolest guy in the world when it came to chasing girls...in reality he had no nerve, and missed a whole lot of chances with some women who were really into him. He just would say “it’s not the right time” and stuff like that...last I heard he still hasn’t got a girlfriend...
“In My Own Hands” - Take Charge, already!
“Lessons In Real Time” - Beautiful song, a real challenge to play live, in fact, I’ve yet to get to the point where I can play it live right yet...But I plan on having it in the set for the next group of solo shows I do, so I have no choice but to get it down!
“What Will Be Will Be” - I read a lot of books about Zen philosophy, and this song kind of comes from those readings...if you’re a musician, you MUST read “Zen Guitar” by Phillip Sudo!
“I’m On My Way” - The first true-as-I-can-get-it blues songs I’ve ever done. Even played upright bass on it, and it’s one of my favorite songs on this album.
Well, as of March 2006 these are all the solo albums that I have done. I’m going to be putting up podcasts of the albums in the next few weeks and months, as well as getting a new album out. I’ll talk about that one in a separate entry here on the site. Thanks for reading!